Wine Marketing + Law Canada

Vancouver Sun Coverage of Wine Law/Marketing Issues

mhicken — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:11:26 +0000

Malcolm Parry’s column in the Vancouver Sun today refers to my work on wine law & marketing issues today. If you want further information on legal issues related to the wine industry, you should check out my WineLaw.ca website and if you would like to help try to change our wine laws and taxation, please join us at the FreetheWine.ca website.

New LDB/BC Liquor Store Wine Markup Calculators

mhicken — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:48:38 +0000

I have revised my BC Liquor Store Wine Markup Calculators to reflect the changes to markup and taxation structure that will occur as a result of the introduction of the HST on July 1, 2010. You can now run various prices through the calculators for both before-HST and after-HST estimations. If you do that, you will notice that the shelf prices will generally stay the same … however, the LDB markup will go up and the combined federal/provincial sales tax will go down. These issues are covered in more detail at my companion site, www.winelaw.ca.

Diageo Continues to Affect Bordeaux Prices

mhicken — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:15:47 +0000

Interesting story on Bloomberg.com this morning by Elin McCoy on the continuing fallout on Bordeaux prices following Diageo’s withdrawal as the major supplier of Bordeaux to the North American market. Canadian buyers and agents have largely been insulated from the effects of this due to our monopoly distribution systems which do not easily allow market driven price fluctuations. However, I am sure there are many Canadian lovers of Bordeaux who are taking advantage of the situation by buying product south of the border.

Out with the Green Bell Peppers …

mhicken — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:36:21 +0000

Interesting story in the Wine Spectator today on research showing a simple way to reduce green bell pepper flavours in red wine grown in cool climates. This could be an important development for BC wineries as some, but certainly not all, of our red wines are susceptible to this problem (see the comments about growing cab sauv in the Okanagan in the last Canadian Wine Awards).

Federal Govt Provides Funding for Wine Access Magazine

mhicken — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:50:59 +0000

The federal government has announced funding for the publishers of Wine Access magazine which will assist in the production of the Canadian Wine Annual and further development of the Wine Access website. This type of assistance should prove to be a valuable benefit to the wine industry because it will ensure that one of the leading voices for Canadian wine continues to grow. It’s my view that this type of marketing assistance is exactly what the Canadian wine industry needs. Thanks Ottawa!

Wine Marketing at the Olympic Games

mhicken — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:42:18 +0000

Vincor is set to take marketing gold over the next couple of weeks as its brands comprise the official wines of the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. The exposure will no doubt be invaluable for Vincor which is already Canada’s largest wine producer (although it is owned by the U.S. giant, Constellation Brands). However, the route to the Games has not come without controversy, the most significant of which was the “Cellared in Canada” fiasco of last year in which it was revealed that the Esprit Olympic brand was, in fact, made from mostly foreign grapes. That mistake will likely be forgotten during the games as all of the product actually supplied for the Olympics will be 100% Canadian VQA wine. Vincor’s brands will get huge exposure to an international audience over the next couple of weeks … hopefully, the entire BC industry will also come along for the ride.

The Wine Marketing Future is Mobile

mhicken — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:52:19 +0000

I attended this year’s Direct to Consumer Symposium in Sonoma last week. The recurrent message was that the future of DTC wine marketing is going to skew heavily toward mobile marketing (by which I mean marketing tools such as text messaging, twitter, facebook or websites … but all of which work on smartphones such as the iPhone or Blackberry). See this report from Wines & Vines for details. At almost the same time, the San Francisco Chronicle writes that it thinks that the big breakthrough app for wine consumers will be Cellar Tracker, created by Seattle wine lover, Eric LeVine.

If you happen to have an iPhone, you might want to check out the convergence of these two trends by using the app, Cor.kz. This nifty app allows you to bar-code scan a bottle of wine using the camera in your iPhone. The app then connects to CellarTracker and displays all the relevant information about the wine including user reviews from their huge database. You can then save the wine into your own cellar or if you are drinking it, share your own rating and tasting notes using Twitter and/or Facebook (connectivity for both are built in). Check it out … this is the future!

Globe Story Highlights Absurd BC Wine & Liquor Prices

mhicken — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:25:23 +0000

Today’s Globe and Mail wine column by Beppi Crosariol highlights good value wines that retail for under $20. Beppi provides an interesting range of picks for consumers who want to find a reasonably priced “house wine”. However, the picks highlight the ridiculous price of wines in British Columbia. For the wines that are available in both Ontario and BC, here’s the price comparison:

Louis Latour Chardonnay: $15.95 in ON; $19.99 in BC

Concha Y Toro Marques de Casa Cab Sauv: $19.99 in both provinces

Santa Rita Medalla Real Cab Sauv: $19.99 in both provinces

Remole Toscana: $12.95 in ON; $13.99 in BC

Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone: $14.95 in ON; $17.99 in BC

Les Fumes Blanches Sauv Blanc: $11.95 in ON; $13.99 in BC

MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir: $19.95 in ON; $24.99 in BC

J & F Lurton Pinot Gris: $10.95 in ON; $13.99 in BC

Bollini Pinot Grigio: $16.95 in ON; $18.99 in BC

Pierre Sparr Gewurtraminer: $16.50 in ON; $21.99 in BC

Ouch … only two wines are the same price and many of the wines are significantly more expensive in BC. And this is a comparison between two liquor monopolies … not a comparison between the U.S. and Canada where the differences would be even greater. Something is seriously wrong with the LDB pricing structure when you have differences this large between MONOPOLIES. Doesn’t a government monopoly have an obligation to act reasonably when its the only game in town?

CIC Causes Split in Ontario Wine Industry

mhicken — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:01:07 +0000

Some of Ontario’s largest producers (those that make Cellared in Canada wines) have withdrawn from the Wine Council of Ontario and formed their own alternative trade organization, the Winery and Grower Alliance of Ontario. The split was apparently caused by the Ontario government’s introduction of increased taxation on CIC wines in order to support the growth of VQA sales. There now appear to be two distinct camps within the Ontario industry, those that produce solely VQA product and those that produce both VQA and CIC product. The latter group is apparently set to fight the new tax as reported in this story from Wines & Vines: Ontario Wineries From New Group.

Analysts Predict Bordeaux Price Collapse

mhicken — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:41:46 +0000

Interesting story this morning on Bordeaux prices. Diageo, one of the largest purchasers of Bordeaux worldwide, is exiting the business and liquidating their huge Bordeaux wine inventory at greatly reduced prices. This is creating a cascade of downward price pressure for Bordeaux in the U.S. with retail prices ebbing below wholesale in some cases. Here in B.C., we are, of course, “insulated” from bargains by the LDB … but will consumers keep buying Bordeaux here when they see prices collapsing south of the border?